Peppermint Mocha Hot Chocolate Truffle Bombs

These Peppermint Mocha Hot Chocolate Truffle Bombs are the perfect no-bake treat!  Add one to a mug and pour hot milk over the top to make the most luscious hot chocolate ever! Using simple ingredients, you can have these whipped up in no time! 

Perfect for any holiday cookie tray, and so easy to make!  We love no-bake holiday sweets like my Crockpot Candy and this is one of my Desserts you’ll definitely want in your holiday rotation!

Hot chocolate truffle bombs recipe

I’m sure you’ve seen or heard of the super popular “hot chocolate bombs”.  They’ve been going crazy around the internet lately.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s a hollow sphere of chocolate that’s filled with cocoa powder, sugar, and sometimes dried milk powder/marshmallows.  You add one to a mug and pour in hot milk, then you have yummy hot chocolate!

And while I love the idea, not everyone has a mold to make them.  So these truffle bombs are similar in concept, but instead of being hollow, they’re filled with a peppermint mocha chocolate ganache!

I promise, making a ganache is MUCH easier than you may think, and I’ll walk you through it.

The hot chocolate that you can make from these is so rich and delicious, with bright peppermint flavor!  I love having a bag of these truffle bombs on hand for a cup of hot chocolate with very minimal effort, whenever we want it.

You can use the concept of this recipe to flavor your truffle bombs any way you’d like!

How to make hot chocolate truffle bombs

1. Heat chocolate to make ganache. Combine dark chocolate chips, creamer and cocoa powder in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave until melted, stirring often.
2. Add extract and peppermints. Stir in vanilla extract and crushed candy canes (or peppermint crunch sprinkles).
3. Cover and chill.  Add plastic wrap directly to the surface of the melted chocolate, smoothing it out the best you can, so all the chocolate is in direct contact with the plastic wrap.  This helps prevent a “skin” from forming.  Refrigerate 1-2 hours, or until hardened and firm.
4. Scoop and roll.  Using a cookie scoop, scoop out 1″ size scoops and roll between your hands to create a ball.
5. Chill.  Place balls on wax paper lined baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes.
6. Melt chocolate coating. Melt chocolate wafers in a microwave-safe bowl, stirring often.
7. Dip and top. Using a fork or chocolate dipping tools, dip each truffle ball (one at a time) in the melted chocolate, then place back on wax paper lined baking sheet and sprinkle with crushed candy canes before chocolate hardens.

Additional cooking tips

• MELTING WAFERS – Ghirardelli melting wafers are my preferred chocolate to melt for the outside coating. They melt very easily!

Tips for melting chocolate

• Double Boiler Method – this is my preferred method for melted chocolate.  A double boiler is an actual type of pot, but most people don’t have one on hand, so I make my own makeshift one.  It’s easy, I promise!  Add a bit of water to a sauce pan and place a heat-resistant bowl on top (I use a glass bowl) so it just rests on the sides of the pan, but doesn’t touch the water.  Heat the water on LOW heat and add chocolate to the bowl on top.  Stir often and you’ll see the chocolate start to melt.  Keep stirring, and once you see just tiny lumps of chocolate, remove the bowl from the top of the pan.  Stir, and the residual heat will melt those last little lumps and you’ll have perfect melted chocolate.
• Don’t cook on full power – if you choose to microwave your chocolate, set your microwave to half power (or medium).  This lessens the chance of the chocolate heating too quickly and “seizing”.
• Heat slowly – melt the chocolate in 20-30 second intervals for the first minute, then in 15 second intervals after that, stirring after each cooking interval.  It takes longer, but trust me, it’s worth it.
• Add a bit of oil – one of my favorite tricks is to add a little bit (about a tablespoon or so) of vegetable oil to the chocolate before melting.  I don’t think I’ve ever had seized or scorched chocolate when following the microwave tips and this one!

Have you ever been melting chocolate (especially white chocolate) and had it go from luxuriously smooth and silky, to a thick, grainy paste?  It’s the bane of every baker’s existence!

Chocolate will do that for one of two reasons.  First, a bit of water got into your chocolate.  Water is the enemy of melted chocolate and will turn all it into a gluey paste, very quickly.

Secondly, it can be overheated and scorched.  This often happens when chocolate is cooked at too high of a temperature, and/or for too long.

Variations of this recipe

** these are ideas, but haven’t been thoroughly tested.  If using, your results may vary **

• Different chocolate – regular milk or even white chocolate should work for this recipe as well, so feel free use what you have available.
• No creamer – if you don’t have any creamer on hand, or would rather not use it, heavy whipping cream would be my preferred substitution.

• Peppermint extract – 1/4 tsp of peppermint extract can be substituted for the crushed candy canes that are inside the truffle bombs.  It may not seem like much, but beware of adding more, because peppermint extract is very strong!
• Espresso – for a fun little kick to your truffles, add a teaspoon of espresso powder!
• Add ins – anything you’d like in your hot chocolate, can be added to these truffles.  Mini marshmallows (I like to use scissors to cut mine into 4ths so they fit better), chocolate chips, etc.
• Toppings – holiday sprinkles, regular sprinkles, a drizzle of milk/dark chocolate, or a drizzle of white chocolate… there are so many options!  If you’re drizzling chocolate (of any kind) over the top though, wait until the chocolate coating is set before drizzling more, so you get a beautiful texture.

Making chocolate truffle bombs ahead of time

During the holidays, time is definitely at a premium!  The more treats you can make ahead, the better.  The good news is that these truffles can absolutely be made ahead of time.

Storage

Truffle bombs should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Shop the recipe

• Cookie Scoop – this scoop holds approximately 1.5 Tbsp of dough, and will yield evenly sized truffles that are perfect for making hot chocolate.

Be sure to scroll down to check out other readers’ comments for tips and reviews.

And don’t forget, if you’ve made this recipe, leave a comment and please consider giving it a star rating letting me know how you enjoyed it 🙂

Any nutritional information shared is an estimate, and is automatically calculated through a program.  If calorie count is important to you, I recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer.  Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

 

The Chunky Chef is not a nutritionist and doesn’t provide full nutritional information for recipes as she wouldn’t want to potentially and unknowingly pass along incorrect information.

If changing the recipe serving quantity, the recipe plugin will change the ingredient values for you, but it does NOT change the written instructions, those are manually added and not subject to a slider. You will have to extrapolate that multiplication to any amounts listed in the instructions.
For example: if an ingredient calls for 4 cups, and you doubled the recipe, it will automatically change to 8 cups. In the instructions, if I say “use 4 cups of cheese”, you will have to realize that since you doubled it, you use 8 cups, not 4.